START treaty does not mean full understanding reached- journalist

“The American side is acting in sheer disregard of the very concept of the START treaty as it is understood in Russia,” said Kommersant magazine’s Sergey Strokan, referring to the deployment of US missiles in Poland.

According to Strokan, despite the recent treaty, Russia and the US seem to disagree on the basic issue of whether the US has the right to build its newest ABM system.

“The Obama administration would not restrict itself from going ahead with its ABM systems,” Strokan said. “As Robert Gates blankly put it, regardless of Russian objections, we will go ahead with this.”

The journalist says this policy might at one point force Russia to withdraw from the treaty.

“After ratifying the treaty we might find out that we have a basic misunderstanding over the essence of the treaty,” he warned.

“Every treaty contains a right to withdraw,” pointed out Aleksandr Pikaev, a political analyst from the Institute of World Economy and International Relations.

“We know very well that the treaty is good for American interests. So we don’t see any problems why Americans would not ratify it. But it’s a problem because of the American domestic political system. Therefore, we absolutely should not ratify it before. We will see how things in Washington will go,” said Pikaev.